"Nope, not yet," quipped Julian Lamarche, manager of this up-and-coming park just 75 miles west of Denver.

"We spray 'em down first with a flame retardant so they don't get singed, seriously," he said, noting that the BBQ is for experts only.

In order to use flammable gas on the 12-foot-tall, 51-foot-long set of twin barrel rails, Lamarche said Keystone had to get a special permit from the local fire department.

"It was fun to make and we had to figure out how far propane would travel down a two-inch rail," said Lamarche, whose terrain park is the largest in Colorado and covers 54 acres of the Pack Bowl.

"It was worth the hoops we had to jump through to build the BBQ," added Lamarche, who considers some of his swooping, bending rail creations works of art. "It's really cool."

Especially at night, when most of the park is softly illuminated, and 2- to 5-inch flames are shooting down the double pipes.

Terrain parks are hot, particularly among so-called "jibbers," those boarders and now skiers who are the snow-riding equivalent of daredevil skateboarders.

In response, resorts from Vermont to Wisconsin to British Columbia are building bigger half pipes and adding more creative rails, fun boxes and hits to their parks.

"They are a big part of what is driving the industry," said Brent Meyer, a 27-year-old pro snowboarder and Wheaton native who lives in Breckenridge, Colo.

"Terrain parks are a great place to work on new tricks, show your stuff and dial in new skills," said Meyer, who took a first place in the 2005 Snowboard Rodeo Festival.

"Many kids today don't care about exploring the whole mountain, they spend all their time in the parks," Meyer said.

The nation's newest resort--Echo Mountain--isn't really a mountain at all. It's a 30-acre terrain park 35 miles west of Denver that is scheduled to open in December. Eventually, backers say, the park will expand to 60 acres, rivaling the size of the big resorts' play areas.

"It will be a skateboard park on snow, and we're shooting for the 13- to 29-year-old crowd," said manager Doug Donovan.

"This will not be your mother's resort," he said. "It will have bright lights, loud music, lots of rails and jumps, and an urban feel. It won't be rustic. It'll be edgy but will have all different ability levels."

That's another trend most terrain parks are following. Instead of building for just the best and boldest, they are adding features that permit riders of all skills to progress up the learning ladder.

Donovan said he figures Echo Mountain will draw 70 percent snowboarders and 30 percent skiers the first year.

"But there is a pretty big movement back to skiing because they are going bigger and higher and faster," he said. "If you are 12, it's cool to be a skier again."

Snowboarders still make up the majority of terrain park users. And they can be more than 70 percent of the total visitors to some Southern California resorts.

But it is young skiers who have flocked to twin-tip skis--on which they can do tricks while zipping forward and backward--who have helped push the expansion of parks.

It's common now to see them grinding their edges on rails, spinning off jumps or hucking big air out of half-pipes almost two stories tall.

Dana Vander Houwen, who works for Mammoth Mountain Resort in the Eastern Sierra of California, said twin-tip skiers can do nearly everything snowboarders can do in the parks--and more.

Transworld Snowboarding Magazine listed her area as the top resort in North America this year. Readers ranked its terrain parks second in the annual poll.

"I actually think it's more fun to watch skiers in the parks and pipes because of the different tricks they can do," she said, noting that Mammoth will have four parks covering 75 acres this year.

At Colorado's Breckenridge Resort, which has long been a mecca for snowboarders, terrain parks are spread out all over the mountain. It ranked first for its pipes and third overall in the Transworld poll.

"We have five parks and four pipes, each varying in size and difficulty to make sure that all of our visitors can have a great experience," said spokeswoman Mary Katie Coakley.

They range from the pro-level Freeway Super Park and Super Pipe, which has the resort's largest features, to the mid-level Gold King to the small Eldorado Terrain Park and Half Pipe.

Freeway frequently plays host to the world's top competitions, including the US Chevrolet Snowboard Grand Prix set for Dec. 13-17. Eldorado has Breckenridge's smallest park features--rails and fun boxes at snow level and the little jumps--plus a diminutive half pipe for beginners.